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Australian fights back from injury plagued year to claim satisfying silver, writes James Sullivan.

Despite the colour, Australian Sally Pearson was pleased with picking up yet another major championship medal last night. The Queenslander claimed silver in the 100m Hurdles at the World Championships in Moscow, recording a season’s best of 12.50 seconds, equaling the time the mark she recorded in winning her semi final an hour earlier.

“It has been a really tough season for me so to come away with a medal is very exciting and I can’t be disappointed with it” stated Pearson, who was narrowly defeated by 22 year old American sensation Brianna Rollins, who recorded a 12.44 clocking, despite an extraordinarily slow reaction time of 0.263. “This season has been a big emotional roller-coaster. I pushed as hard as I could tonight and the better athlete won.”

Sally Pearson

The 26 year old, who’s accolades include World Championship gold in Daegu in 2011 and the Olympic title in London last year, has had an injury ravaged year in 2013, tearing her hamstring on two occasions, thus beginning racing much later than usual, missing the Australian season early in the year, which has long been a part of her preparations.

“The Australian season definitely helps me in preparing for major championships” remarked Pearson, who’s personal best of 12.28 places her fifth on the world all-time list. “It builds my strength up, it builds my speed up and it builds my race fitness up. I probably missed 150 hurdle clearances this year and that showed tonight as I didn’t have the finish that I usually have so that was a little bit disappointing.”

Despite relinquishing her world crown, the multi-medalist believes that her experience in Moscow has been a positive one. “I was beaten by just one person tonight and I cant be disappointed with that, especially with how I’ve been going for the whole year.”

In spite of all her injury setbacks in 2013, Pearson still believed entering these championships that the gold medal was still very much there for the taking. “Every one of us out there goes into a race wanting to win. There’s no shame in that. We do our best out there to become the world champion. My training for the last few weeks leading into this has been fantastic. My clearances over the hurdles, my starts, and my speed on the track had been coming together a week before the London Diamond League. I believed I could possibly have won the world championship tonight.”

With another medal secured, the Gold Coast Victory hurdler has no intention of ending her season just yet and will set her sights on the final Diamond League meets of the season. “I am coming into shape now and I look forward to my last few races of the season to see what I can run.”